Use them wisely. Do some sneaky pre-writing of what you did over your Easter holidays! With Easter falling right before the Orals, this question will be a great way for the examiner to test your knowledge of Easter vocabulary as well as your past tenses.

You probably already know your plans for Easter, so use your time wisely and prepare something that you can have corrected before you even go off for that break when it comes around!

Vocabulario útil:

Semana Santa = Holy Week/Easter week

domingo de Pascua = Easter Sunday

huevos de Pascua = Easter eggs

Conejo/conejito de Pascua = Easter bunny

ir a misa/a la iglesia = to go to mass/to church

el cofrade = religious brotherhood that carries religious images around the city at Easter, particularly famous in Seville.

dejar algo = to give up something

la Cuaresma = Lent

Sample questions and answers:

¿Qué hiciste durante las vacaciones de Semana Santa? = What did you do over the Easter holidays?

Well, the truth is that I couldn’t do much other than study because I’m under a lot of pressure now with (all) the exams that are on these two weeks: Spanish/Irish/music/French/German. NB Imperfect tense to describe repeated/habitual actions in the past.

So nearly every day, I got up early, had breakfast and studied for about three or four hours. Then I ate something and went out for a walk or a run. It’s important to take some kind of break during an intense day like this. In the afternoon, I studied again for a few hours more and then, depending on how much work I’d done, I met friends to go to the cinema/surfed the Internet/chatted with my friends/watched a bit of TV.

¿Cómo celebraste Pascua? = How did you celebrate Easter? NB Preterite tense as you are describing a series of single completed actions.

My family and I went to church/mass on Easter Sunday and when we came home, my Mum/Dad/Granny etc prepared a magnificent meal. The whole family came/my uncles & aunts and cousins came. We ate roast beef/roast lamb/roast suckling pig etc. It was delicious. Then we ate Easter eggs and lay on the couch to have a siesta/watch TV/watch a film. I had a good time. It was good to take a day off and be with family.

Velas de Pascua

¿Qué sueles hacer el domingo de Pascua? = What do you normally do on Easter Sunday? NB Present tense. I use (and have underlined) the verb soler here. It’s radical-changing o>ue, and always followed by the infinitive, and means to usually do something. It’s a great verb to get familiar with.

On Easter Sunday my family and I normally go to mass and then we celebrate the day with my grandparents/with my uncles and aunts. Some years we go to my grandparents’ house/my uncle and aunt’s house and others we stay at home and they come to us. After that, we need a siesta and then we watch TV. It’s usually a really relaxed day and I like it.